Too Close
by Iniysa
Summary: Another mission goes badly and Jim must deal with his injured crew members and himself until they can be beamed back up to the Enterprise. Of course then he has to deal with Bones. Friendship Fic. T - Because there is blood.


Too Close

By: Lauren Freeman

A/N: I love hurt/Comfort stories. So once again I present to you a story where Jim is injured. :) I'm sure it wont be the last. NOT BETA READ – All mistakes are mine.

Disclaimer: I do not own StarTrek. I am making no money with this story.

The mission had been declared a disaster in Jim's mind from the moment they beamed down and found themselves surrounded by men in terry cloths with pointy sticks. When this was over Jim was going to have a long talk with Scotty about beaming them down in area's where there are life forms. Small animals my ass! It was the Narada all over again, except with a bunch of mostly naked primitives instead of highly advanced humanoids, and they had long thin pointy sticks instead of high powered phasers. But still! Because of the primitive advancement of the species they would not be allowed to use their phasers or any kind of advanced equipment. This was a major rule that was adhered to at all cost... most of the time.

"We come in peace?" Jim stated in his calmest voice. It had the opposite effect. The leader let out a battle cry and they all began to come at them. This was a science mission, basic survival combat was their only training, and most had not practiced since they were in the Academy who knew how long ago. Jim made a mental note to enforce mandatory training sessions at least once a month. The two security officers on this supposed to be simple away team stepped up quickly and began to fight.

"Kirk to Enterprise! We're being attacked, beam us back up!" Jim yelled into his COMM.

"Aye Sir." Scotty's voice stated back. Jim joined the fight trying to protect the medic and two science officers who looked frankly terrified. Jim managed to grab a pointy stick one of the natives dropped, and that helped a lot. He took out his third attacker before he realized they still had not been beamed up.

"Scotty!" Jim yelled.

"I'm trying, sir! There is some sort of major interference! I am working my way around it." Jim groaned, of course there was some sort of interference! That only happened when they needed the transporter for emergencies. He turned just in time to see a ape man shoot his stick straight threw his medics stomach. She cried out in pain before dropping. Jim took him out quickly before turning around looking for more threats, but the ape men or what was left of them; were running away.

Jim grabbed the medics bag and dropped to his knees beside the medic who was crying on the ground. Throwing on gloves he looked into his medics eyes.

"Ensign Riggs, look at me." After a moment she met his eyes. "There is a stick going through your stomach. I need you to stay as still as possible. I know it hurts, but if you move you could create more damage. Do you understand? He asked quietly. It was a full thirty seconds before she whispered a yes.

"Good, stay still. I'm going to bandage around the stick on your stomach and back to control the bleeding, okay?" She grunted so he quickly got to work placing rolled up gauze around where the stick came out on both ends and wrapping her entire stomach in more gauze to hold it all tight and in place. Alright, I'm done, I need to go find out how everyone else is doing." She whispered an okay, before he grabbed the kit. Halfway between Riggs and Morrison he paused to speak into his COMM.

"Kirk to Enterprise." No one responded. "Kirk to Enterprise!" There was some static in response but nothing else. He cursed and hurried over to the next person who looked seriously wounded. The security Lieutenant he ran up to next had a long thin piece of a stick (Not unlike the ones the ape men had been using as weapons) lodged in his eye. The captain could not help but wince at the sight. The officer himself seemed calm and looked to be fighting not to touch the object.

"Morrison, stay still. There's a branch sticking out of your eye, don't touch it." Jim stated calmly.

"Yeah, okay." Morrison stated in almost a whisper. Are you cold? Jim asked as sweat dripped down his forehead. But Morrison looked to be shivering. Shock. Jim cursed internally before looking around. He grabbed a science bag and headed back to Morrison.

"You're going into shock, I'm going to lift your legs up onto this bag, okay?" Jim asked as he did it anyways. Grabbing an emergency blanket from the bag he placed it over Morrison before grabbing a long rolling bandage from the bag.

"Listen, I need to wrap your eye."

"Your not going t-to take it out are you?" Morrison whispered.

"No, I'm going to wrap the bandage around it, but here's the thing. To make sure your eyes does not move I need to bandage both eyes. If you move your good eye, your other eye will try to move as well." Jim told him trying to stay calm himself. There was a reason they had medics on every away team, by Starfleet standards he was only trained to do CPR and stop bleeding. He had taken a much more advanced course before joining the Fleet, but all his certifications had long expired.

"No, please. I don't want to be blind. I want to be able to see if the enemy comes back." Morrison finally looked panicked.

"Listen, if they come back you're in no condition to fight, for one. Two, if I don't do this you may become permanently blind in your right eye and you will be facing a medical discharge." Jim told him. After a moment he finally got the okay he was looking for. Jim nodded then very, very carefully wrapped the bandage around the impaled object and the security officers head, as well as the left eye. Alright, just remain calm and still. I'm going on to the next person, call me if you need anything.

"Okay." Morrison whispered. Jim stood up and felt a deep stabbing pain in his gut. He pulled up his shirt and could already see the large dark bruise covering his stomach. A slight headache was also beginning to appear. He shook his head and before looking around, a red shirt caught his attention so moved on to find Ensign Hjagtie, immediately noticing that the she was not breathing. He felt for a pulse but didn't find one. Grabbing the tricorder he activated it and found her to be brain dead. Cursing he moved onto the next science officer. He was met there by another security officer, Tracy.

His second science officer had been stabbed by the pointy edge of a stick to the chest. The security officer had a piece of torn cloth on the wound. Jim could quickly see that she was having trouble breathing. He pulled out the tricorder and confirmed a punctured lung. He grabbed the medical bag and changed gloves. Grabbing the chest wound kit from the back he quickly found what he was looking for. He had never been trained to do this per say, but he had, had it used on him once and the medic doing it had explained what she was doing as she did it. Pulling out the small plastic sheet from it's wrapping he looked Gibbions in the eye.

"Gibbs, you have a punctured lung, I'm going to re-inflate and temporarily seal the wound. Do you understand?" Jim asked. Gibbs nodded slightly. Tracy was looking at him like he was crazy.

"Sir, with all do respect, do you...?" Jim gave her a severe look and she backed off.

"Okay on the count of three lift the bandage." Jim told Tracy, who reluctantly nodded.

"Yes, sir." She mumbled.

"Good, one, two, three." The make shift bandage was lifted and Jim got to work. Wiping the wound quickly with a sterilizer he placed the plastic bandage over the wound.

"Okay I have the wound sealed, I am going to press hard on the wound and that will activate the temporary lung sealer. This will hurt but it will be quick and you should be able to breath again, okay?" She nodded again. "Alright." He pressed on the wound carefully with not enough pressure to break her ribs, but with a wound any pressure hurt. She cried out as the plastic turned yellow in color before finally turning green just as Gibbs took in a nice deep breath. Jim lifted the pressure as soon as the patch turned green with a sigh of relief. His stomach was killing him now, he touched it while slowly standing and could not help but think it was a little too hard. He turned to Tracy.

"Are you hurt?" He asked her. She held up the arm she had not been using to hold pressure on Gibb's chest. Pulling up the tricorder he found that it was a simple laceration. Not at all deep but would need to be sealed. Changing gloves again, he grabbed the sealer and without him having to say anything she held out her bloody arm. The large cut was cleaned, sealed and dressed in a clean bandage within minutes.

"Anything else?" Jim asked. She shook her head.

"No sir, I somehow managed to make it out of the fight relatively good. Some bruising here and there. Nothing that can't wait. What about you, sir?" Jim hesitated for a moment, but thought better of it. He would need her help using the tricorder on himself in a few minutes anyway.

"I may have internal bleeding in my stomach." Jim told the officer quietly before looking around.

"What?! You shouldn't be moving!" Tracy yelled.

"Do you know how to use a medical tricorder?" He asked Tracy.

"No. How do you?!" Tracy asked, eyes wide.

"I spend a lot of time in sickbay." Jim shrugged. It wasn't a lie, just not how he knew how to use it. "I need to check on everyone, then we will check me. Alright?" Jim stated.

"But Captain!" Tracy growled. "You need to lay down now!" Jim gave her a hard look.

"I know that, Lieutenant. But I need to run a quick scan on everyone first. Help me out here, I'll tell you what to do."

"Yes sir." She stated. They moved to Riggs.

"How are you doing?" Jim asked.

"As long as I don't move." She whispered back. Jim nodded.

"Are you cold?" Jim asked as he handed the scanning portion of the tricorder to Tracy.

"No, I'm not in shock. Not yet at least. Thank God, I can't lay on my back." He mumbled back. Jim nodded.

"Tracy start running the the wand over the wounded areas. She nodded and squatted down. Okay stop right there." He stated.

"Do you know what your seeing?" Tracy asked interestedly.

"A little bit. I can get the basic information copied to this, as well as initial imaging so that Bone's knows what's happened. See how it's changed as time goes by." Jim stated quietly as he concentrated on what he was recording. He saved the data then looked up.

"Alright Riggs, remember not to move and we will be out of here in no time." Jim smiled down at her and she grunted. They moved on to Morrison.

"Captain?" Morrison asked sounding slightly panicked.

"Yeah, it's me. Lieutenant Tracy is here too. We're just going to run the tricorder over your eye and look for signs of any other injuries, okay?"

"Yeah. Nothing else hurts if that was your next question."

"Good." Jim stated as he programed the patient info into the tricorder. "How's the shock? Still cold?" Jim asked as Tracy took the scanner again and moved it above the eye.

"Yeah, my arms and legs are tingling." He stated.

"Okay." Jim murmured. Then saved the data he collected. "Tracy do me a favor and touch one of Morrisons hands and tell me if it's cool?" She nodded. "Still in shock." He added this to the tricorder and saved again. "Alright Morrison, we're going to move on to Gibbs. Are you okay?" Jim asked.

"Yeah, you got internal bleeding captain?" Riggs asked suddenly. Jim looked down and frowned.

"Probably." Jim said back. The captain and Lieutenant moved on to Morrison skipping over Hjagtie. Tracy paused in front of him for a moment before following her Captain. The dressing was still green. He repeated the scanning process before turning to Tracy who was looking at him expectedly.

"Alright, I'll lay down now." Jim stated feeling really sick now. Tracy helped him down on the dirty ground. Alright, hold the wand over my stomach, he stated. She lifted his shirt up and gasped. He set his own information into the system and turned on the wand. It began to beep loudly and he sighed at his numbers blinked across the screen in red. He began to scan and found that there was in fact massive internal bleeding. Not good.

"Captain?"

"Yeah, I'm bleeding internally." He sighed suddenly feeling exhausted. His head was really starting to pound now.

"You're gray sir." Tracy whispered. He saved his data and tried his COMM again.

"Kirk to Enterprise." There was static then finally a voice.

"Enterprise. What's your status, Jim." McCoy's worried voice asked.

"The fights over, I think we lost." Jim stated feeling nauseous.

"Jim?" McCoy sounded almost frantic now. Tracy tapped her COMM.

"Sir, this is Lieutenant Tracy. Everyone but me is wounded, all I have is a cut on my arm but it's taken care of. The captain has major internal bleeding if the the medical tricorder's loud beeping means anything." McCoy could be heard cursing on the other end of the open mic. Tracy continued anyways.

"Ensign Riggs has a large stick stuck threw his stomach. He is not in shock though I think he should be. Lieutenant Morrison had a small stick stuck in her right eye. It is wrapped, as is her other eye. She is in shock. Ensign Hjagtie, is dead. Lieutenant Gibbs was stabbed in the chest, her lung has been re-inflated and sealed for the moment. Sitting back she waited for instructions.

"We found away around the interference, we're beaming you up now." A Scottish accent spoke, just before white swirls swirled around them. She heard yelling and turned just as a massive group of natives came over a hill half a mile away with a battle cry. Then they were gone from the plant and on the transporter pad on board the Enterprise. She sighed in relief as did Jim laying just beside her. He began to vomit a brown coffee looking substance however and suddenly she was pulled back to the present. A medical team surrounded the group and she stepped away to give them room. Just before they left however McCoy turned around.

"Good job Lieutenant." Then, before she could correct him, he was gone. Spock took his place, however.

"Lieutenant, report." Spock stated, emotionless; though if she looked real hard, she thought maybe she could see some worry in his eyes. But then maybe she was just deluding herself. So she gave him her full report. It wasn't long, although they had been down there an hour, only two major things had happened. The attack and her Captain taking care of everyone before succumbing to his own wounds. Spock nodded once and walked away, she sighed in relief before heading to sickbay herself. She wanted to know how everyone was doing and find out if Kirk really knew what he was doing.

The Sickbay was in chaos, with only two doctors, a handful of nurses as well as some medics, they had their work cut out for them. Then again, this is what they trained for. The away team had been carefully triaged and moved to separate bio beds. She noticed the Captain was not there, nor was Riggs. A medic stepped up in front of her.

"Lieutenant Tracy, your bed is over here." He stated.

"I don't need a bed. All I got was a cut, and it was cleaned and sealed."

"You will still need to be examined, Mame." She sighed and walked over to the table where the medic gave her a gown and closed the curtains around her bed so that she could change. When she was done she reopened to curtain and asked another medic what was happening with everyone.

"The Captain is in surgery with Dr. McCoy, M'Benga took Riggs to OR Two. Lieutenant Morrison will go in next and then Lieutenant Gibbions will go in for a more permanent fix to her lung and chest. You will be seen by a nurse soon then monitored until a doctor can go over your results and release you." The Ensign stated in a factual matter.

"And Ensign Hjagtie?"

"He was moved to the morgue, mame." She nodded sadly before laying down on her own bed suddenly very, very tired. When she woke up she could tell some time had passed. Around her all the beds were filled. The Captain was sleeping or sedated more like, hooked to more monitors then the biobeds provided, to his left, she found the same could be said for Riggs. Morrisons eye was heavily bandages but no longer had anything sticking out of it. Gibbs looked just to be sleeping with an IV hooked up giving her fluids. At the sight of the IV, she noticed something on her hand as well. She looked down to find her own IV hooked to the back of her hand at one end and a bag of fluids at the other. Dr. McCoy appeared at then end of her bed looking tired but curious.

"You healed your arm perfectly. You had a minor concussion, but that's taken care of. You were all very dehydrated and are receiving liquids via an IV." He paused for a question but before she could say anything he was talking again.

"Did you train as a medic before going into security, Lieutenant? You did an amazing job down there. And the tricorder readings helped a lot up here. Why did you switch over?" Tracy blinked in confusion before she realized what he was asking.

"I didn't. I only know the very basics in First aid that they taught us at the Academy. I was always in the security field. No, the Captain did everything. He made sure Riggs was comfortable and knew not to move. He bandaged Morrison's eyes, propped his legs up and covered him to try and fix the shock symptoms. He fixed Gibbs lung and chest before he fixed my arm. Then he went around with the tricorder and had me move the wand around certain places while he recorded and collected data on everyone, before laying down himself and doing the same." She stated. McCoy just stood there with his mouth slightly open for a moment before turning towards Jim's bed and pointing.

"That captain?" He asked with a look of disbelief.

"Yes, sir. We were pretty sure he had internal bleeding so I did all the bending when we went over everyone with the tricorder. I asked him how he knew how to do all of this and he said he spends a lot of time in here watching. Then I asked him if he knew what he was looking at in the tricorder and he shrugged and said a little bit. But the way he was adjusting and frowning it seemed like he knew more then he was letting on." She shrugged. McCoy just stared at Jim, his confusion turning to a look of wonder. Then a gleam appeared in his eyes and she could have sworn she hear the words 'tests' and 'how much does he REALLY know?' She looked at her Captain almost sorry she had ratted him out to his best friend and CMO. She left the sickbay an hour later with the instructions to relax for a day before going back on duty.

Upon waking up, Jim found Bones sleeping in a chair beside him. He shook his head at his best friend before deciding what his pain really was and what level he would end up telling Bones when he asked him moment he woke. That's when he discovered that he was pain free, not the cured type of pain free but the completely, blissfully on the really good painkillers, type of pain free. He carefully felt around his stomach and found it very, heavily bandaged. Perhaps it was good then that he could not feel any pain, because he knew that, that was going to hurt a lot when they decided to take him off the good stuff. Bones stirred beside him before opening his eyes to stare into Jim's looking right back at him. He jumped slightly before standing, looking up at Jim's monitors.

"Pain?" Bones asked still staring at the monitors.

"Absolutely none." Jim responded, and his vitals showed that he was telling the truth for once. Bones looked down at his friend a puzzled look on his face. This worried Jim a lot, was he SUPPOSED to be in pain? Was something wrong?

"Am I supposed to be in some pain, Bones?" Jim asked slightly wide eyed. Bones did a double take before shaking his head rapidly.

"No, the painkiller you're on is working great. It better be, it's one of very few you're not allergic too." He mumbled the last part before sitting back down.

There was a moment of silence before Bones finally asked:"How did you know what to do down there?" Jim shrugged.

"My normal college classes were too easy and a classmate of mine was complaining about how hard his pre-med classes were. I looked through his text book out of curiosity and realized I knew nothing in it. So I took some basic medical classes to try and challenge myself. It was a long time ago though, and this really tested my memory on where things should be." Bones gave him a look of disbelief. "What?"

"College, Jim?" Bones asked. Jim wondered how that had never come up in conversations.

"Well yeah, I actually did something with my time besides getting drunk, fighting and having sex; Bones." Jim grinned. "I was board."

"So you took a few medical classes for the fun of it?" Bones finally asked.

"No, I took a few medical classes for the challenge of it. My master degrees are in Engineering and Political Science. I took Anatomy and Physiology one and two for the challenge. I took Medical microbiology because my brother dared me too one day... still have nightmares about contagions and microbes. I took an emergency responder course because a fellow student dared me to, so that we could be on the same team on call outs. Because what I didn't know was that once you're a certified emergency responder, they put you on a roster at the school to be called out at any given moment when someone is hurt. I let that one expire two years later. More then once, someone tried to page me when it was me injured in a bar fight. Thought that was pretty funny myself." Jim laughed lightly at the memory.

"Why didn't you tell me?!" Bones asked, wide eyes with exasperation.

"I let it expire because I don't like doing it, Bones. If I did I would have changed my fields of study or done more with it. In a pinch I know the basics. I can use a tricorder and triage because we used them and did it as Emergency Responders. I can fix a punctured lung because it's been done to me and the medic doing it explained in detail what she was doing. They teach everyone how to bandage in basic first aide. But I don't tell anyone this because then it becomes expected that I will be the one sent off to do it. But in a pinch, when it really counts I will step up and do what I know how to do." Jim was suddenly very exhausted again. Bones stared down at his best friend and most frequent patient before shaking his head in exasperation and filling the IV tubing with a sedative.

"Damn it, Jim..." Was the last thing he heard before falling back into a drug induced sleep.


End file.
